Friday, 4 June 2010

The World Cup Beer Sweepstake

In one week the 2010 World Cup kicks off in South Africa and here is the sweepstake with a difference – draw a team, find a beer from that country, drink it and write about it, and, if that country wins the World Cup then you will win free beer for a year from myBrewerytap!

If you enter then you will have your name randomly drawn with a team, your task is to then find a beer from that country (for some this will be easy, for others it will be a real challenge – Honduras and North Korea anyone?!) and write a blog about it (how you got the beer, what it tastes like; include some interesting ‘beer facts’ about that country, attempt a national food dish to go with the beer or you can drink it while watching the team... whatever you want).

This is open to anyone, anywhere who wants to take part, but we can only take the first 32, for obvious reasons (unless we get 64) and to win the beer you need to be based in the UK for postage reasons (if you are outside of the UK then you can still play along!). If you’ve got a blog (any blog - beer, wine, food, football, technology, politics, whatever) then you can post your findings there. If you don’t have a blog then you will be able to write something and post as a guest on someone else’s blog.

If you want to take part then you’ve got until 5pm on Wednesday 9th June to get your name down (use the below form). On Thursday 10th June you’ll find out your team and the World Cup Beer Sweepstake begins on Friday 11th. You need to find the beer, drink it and blog it before the World Cup Final. That’s a month, so not long. Then whoever draws the overall winning team will also win free beer for a year from myBrewerytap*.

If you want to take part then fill in this form! (We’ll only use the details for this competition, nothing else, and they will just be seen by Andy and me)

UPDATE: We have filled 64 places and therefore entry is closed and the form has been removed. The first 32 will compete for the myBrewerytap prize and the second 32 will compete for beers donated to us by Ales by Mail, Adnams and Highland Brewing Company.

* You can only win it if you succeed in finding a beer and actually blog about it, if you fail then you can’t and won’t win and it’ll go to the runner-up (assuming they’ve succeeded…). ‘Success’ means at least attempting to find a beer and must include writing a blog post; no blog post, no win, simple as that. And only UK-based entrants can win the beer, sadly. If the winner is based outside of the UK then it goes to closest runner-up. The prize (for the first 32) is a subscription to their excellent 52 Week Beer Club. (UPDATE: The same rules apply to the second 32 and the winner will only receive the beers if they write a blog - the prize is currently three boxes of beer)

Some further notes:

If you can’t find a beer from the country you are drawn then you need to show that you’ve made a considerable effort and you need to find a relevant replacement (food, coffee, soft drink, hot sauce) and explain why this is a relevant replacement.

For a few hints you can look at Beer Genie who have listed beers from each country and some foods. Even they can’t find beers for some, so that ups the ante.

If you don’t have a blog then let us know and we will find you somewhere to guest blog about it. If you are happy to have guest bloggers then also let us know.

It can be any beer from the country you get drawn, but try and make sure it’s actually brewed there if you can (for example, don’t choose Fosters if you get Australia and live in the UK as it's brewed in the UK…).

If you get a difficult team then tell us how you did/didn’t manage to find the beer. That’s as interesting as the actual drinking of it!

We will do a round-up of all the blogs after the World Cup is finished.

If you want to donate a prize to the competition then please feel free, maybe we can have a wild card or a second place, or a box of beer for the best effort to get a hard-to-find beer.

And thanks to Richard from myBrewerytap for designing the logo – feel free to use it in your blog posts!

Up to about 46 now, we have so far been very kindly offered a case of the rather superb adnams innovation and some beers from Highland brewery on orkney so if you haven't already get your self signed up!